If you live in New England and have done any hiking along the Appalachian Trail, there’s a good chance that the Appalachian Mountain Club and their volunteers are to thank. According to the AMC, “In a typical year, people like you volunteer approximately 18,000 hours building approximately 1,200 feet of bog bridging, completing about 1,000 feet of screewall, installing more than 300 feet of drainage, and building about 100 cairns. Local volunteers help maintain 1,500 miles of trails each year.” Sign up now for 2010 Trail Crew Opportunities at Acadia National Park (Maine), the Berkshires (Massachusetts), the White Mountains (New Hampshire and Maine), Connecticut, the Delaware Water Gap (New Jersey & Pennsylvania), Baxter State Park (Maine), Cardigan Mountain (New Hampshire), and more. And if you volunteer, you’ll get one of these fancy shirts.

Grape Nuts have long been a backpacking breakfast staple, and aside from homemade granola, there’s no better cereal to carry on the trail. According to the internets, it seems as though a lot of people passionately hate the little nutty nuggets, so argue with me if you want. There are few better tastes. (And I’m talking cold cereal here, so oatmeal, grits etc. don’t count.) Check out this wonderfully cheesy ad from an 80s BACKPACKER and then watch Euell Gibbons, authority on wild and edible plants and pictured above, tell you that it tastes like “wild hickory nuts.” I couldn’t find his more famous “Ever eaten a pine tree?” spot for the cereal, so if anyone has it, send it along.

There aren’t many music sites better than The Rising Storm. And not that those guys are ever in a slump, but good lord have they been killing it as of late. Everything’s a gem. Go visit and stay as long as you can. Make yourself a mix and play it loud while your dog (Max or Brian? I say Max is the dog) is sticking his head out the window.

Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a U.S. park ranger in Shenandoah National Park, that, between 1942 and 1977, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions. He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person being struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being. Tetra Pak has a new commercial that’s an homage of sorts to Roy that’s well worth watching. Head on over to 10Engines and have at it.

Unfortunately, Sullivan was finally killed in 1983 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the stomach.

So I ask you, North Face, Vasque, Hi-Tec, Columbia, Merrell (all of you used to make a pair just like the Clarions) why don’t you make a boot like this anymore? Is it because they wouldn’t be as functional for hiking by today’s standards? Then let’s remedy that! I’m sure we can find a way.

In the summer of 1968, Yvon Chouinard, Doug Tompkins, and Dick Dorworth decided to climb the rarely attempted Cerro Fitz Roy, but first they had to drive from California to southern Argentina in a sketchy van. The DVD Mountain of Storms documents the road trip that changed their lives.

California is trying to ban smoking in state parks and on beaches. I don’t smoke, but even I find that to be ridiculous. If someone wants to smoke, let them smoke. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but there’s too much restriction nowadays. I have friends that smoke on camping trips, and they always always always pack their cigarette butts out. I’m sure they’d do the same on a California beach. As San Bernardino Count legistlator Anthony Adams told the SF Chronicle, “”Prohibiting smoking is not the answer. [It] assumes everyone who smokes does something intrinsically criminal.” Read more here.

Living in Chicago, it was hard to notice that last weekend marked the changing of seasons. On Saturday March 20th, at 1:32pm ET, the sun crossed directly over the earth’s equator: the Vernal Equinox. Soon the trees will be in bloom and we will all be trekking through our favorite weekend stomping grounds without any heavy parkas and long underwear.

Stewart Udall was a true champion of the environment. He served as the Secretary of Interior under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and was responsible for some the most important modern environmental victories of our time. Udall passed Saturday morning in his New Mexico home at the ripe old age of 90, just as spring was being born.

Some of Udall’s biggest accomplishments include the Clear Air, Water Quality and Clean Water Restoration Acts, The Wilderness Act of 1964, The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and The National Trail System Act of 1968. He also played a large role in the acquisition of Canyonlands NP, Redwoods NP, North Cascades NP and Guadalupe Mountains NP.

Udall made every Spring a little more enjoyable for all of us, and for that, we thank him. More info here.